13 February 2024

Windows to the East

 

 


Windows to the East frame the color show of dawn
at times splendid in reds and oranges, or dimmed
in pinks and yellows, and today diffused and colorless
through grey mist. Which is more ominous?
Red blood and rocket fire, the fake promise of truce
baby pastels offer, or this grey rain turned snow?
 
I remember days when dawn promised delight as
when Romeo sees Juliet on her balcony, or even
their lover’s morning when nightingale turns to lark
and Romeo must flee—and even now each dawn
brings possibilities and I wake up with joy
for day arising with its own peculiar light.
 
But sober, sober on reflection of war that
I left behind only in my dreams.  Today
death reigns halfway around the world, night turned bright with
fire, and dawn only more death and its companions
starvation and homelessness.  Snow-filled dawn, I pray
for light to reveal a way to ease the strife,
for a balm to heal the harm done to all life.


For Sumana's prompt "Aubade" at What's Going On? 


My blog poems are rough drafts.
Please respect my copyright.
© 2024 Susan L. Chast

10 comments:

  1. Sumana Roy2/13/2024 8:55 AM

    "I remember days when dawn promised delight" We will always pray for these days again to have us surrounded by them. Unfortunately time is such that "death reigns halfway around the world". It's so sad when "night turned bright with fire" instead of offering peaceful rest and and we have to live in a perpetual prayer space.

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  2. Mary2/13/2024 1:28 PM

    " Snow-filled dawn, I pray
    for light to reveal a way to ease the strife,
    for a balm to heal the harm done to all life". What a wonderful prayer, what an appropriate hope in the light of all the darkness and death that is found in today's world.

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  3. Sherry Blue Sky2/13/2024 2:48 PM

    The dawn out your window is so wonderful. I get neither dawn nor sunset where I am, and I long for them. I resonate with the lines Sumana quotes.......sigh.........I too respond to morning, and early springtime, no matter what. It is inborn in me. Smiles. Your closing lines live in my heart. We live in hope.

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  4. Rajani2/13/2024 8:07 PM

    "Which is more ominous?
    Red blood and rocket fire, the fake promise of truce
    baby pastels offer, or this grey rain turned snow?" - sigh!!! That fake promise with the endless arms supply is the ugliest of all... but grey apathy may be viler still... how to choose in this awfulness???

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  5. Kim M. Russell2/14/2024 11:15 AM

    Lots of lovely imagery, lines and phrases to comment on, Susan. I love the use of colour and the contrasts in the opening stanza, and the reference to Romeo and Juliet. My favourite lines:
    ‘…Snow-filled dawn, I pray
    for light to reveal a way to ease the strife,
    for a balm to heal the harm done to all life’
    very Shakespearean.

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  6. alan17042/14/2024 12:42 PM

    This is really good and really challenging - not sure how i feel after reading it, mixed emotions and feelings. Very well written and very interesting.

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  7. Fireblossom2/14/2024 4:37 PM

    I'm grateful every day that i don't live in a war zone. Beyond that, I don't allow myself to dwell too much on events I can't do anything about, but rather, I try to be grateful for what I have and what I am able to do, even if it is only to have patience with someone or show a little kindness every day. I don't always succeed, but I keep trying. That, to me, is the beauty of these 24-hour cycles we exist in--as Orphan Annie says, tomorrow is only a day away.

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  8. Dora2/15/2024 1:48 PM

    What a lovely dawn through your window, Susan, with which to frame your musings struggling at once with renewed hope and deathly reality, that lead to prayerful longing. A beautifully balanced construction.

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  9. Jennifer Wagner2/15/2024 8:50 PM

    I love your closing lines especially, Susan. You walk us beautifully from death to hope. From our deepest aches come our most fervent prayers. Praying with you.

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  10. Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil2/20/2024 2:53 PM

    This beautiful, Susan. Your descriptors are great, including "the fake promise of truce baby pastels offer"! Nice to work the color reference with the thought it provokes.

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